Beware alleged photo of Hakeem Jeffries with Epstein

In February 2026, a supposed image of U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., with the late financier and sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein circulated widely on social media, mainly X.

(X user @TheUnHeard_One)

Snopes readers wrote in asking whether the image of Epstein with Jeffries was a real photo. 

We found that the photo not real, and was generated with artificial intelligence tools. The post was a good example of AI slop — low quality content produced using AI aiming to play the algorithm to go viral and make money.

Performing a reverse image search on Google showed the earliest example of the image was dated to Feb. 11, and originated from the X account @DumbFckFinder. We reached out to the owner of that account hoping to confirm they created the photo, but had not heard back at time of publication. 

That account describes its output as parody and satire. Its about page states that it is "an AI-powered meme engine that turns stupidity into content":

We use AI to create memes, songs, stories, and visuals that call things exactly how they are — fast, loud, and impossible to ignore. If something looks dumb, sounds dumb, or feels off, we turn it into something shareable.

A reverse image search revealed the image had been posted only to social media, and never by prominent news media outlets. Given the scale of the Epstein case, prominent news media outlets would have widely reported this rumor, if true.

Finally, we ran the image in the post through Google's Gemini AI. Any image generated by Gemini contains a watermark called a SynthID. Gemini found that "most or all of this image was edited or generated with Google AI."

For further reading, Snopes previously reported on another story from the same account of a fake photo with Epstein and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.